Crime of Passion
by always-somewhere-close
Summary: What happens when famous baseball player Eric Addison is killed? Castle and Beckett have to figure out who the murderer is before time is up. *DISCLAIMER* Not much Caskett, mostly crime solving.


The old librarian walked slowly up to the giant library doors. She went to put her key in the lock, but when she pushed against it, it opened with an eerie creak.

"Is anyone here?" she called out with a frail voice. When there was no response, she stepped into the darkness of the dusty library. The lights flickered as she flipped the light switch to "on."

"What is that dreadful sme-" her sentence was cut off by the bloodcurdling scream she let out as she came face to face with a dead body.

"There's been a murder at the library? Seriously? Why here? It's an offense to the written word. What kind of cold-blooded killer-"

"Castle." Detective Beckett said in a warning tone.

"Right, sorry."

"So, Laine, what do we have?" she asked, directing her attention to the ME, Lanie Parrish.

"28 year old male, marks on his neck indicate strangulation. Time of death somewhere between 9 and 9:30. His wallet is gone, so we don't have an ID yet, but we can ask around as see if anyone recognizes him. We also found this" she held up an old letter with her purple gloved hand "on the table near the vic. It could have our killer's fingerprints on it."

"Ok, good idea. Run it and see if you can find anything. In the meantime, I know who he is."

"You knew the vic?" Lanie said questioningly.

"Not personally, no. But I know who he is. His name is Eric Addison and he's a player for the New York Yankees. My dad's a _huge_ fan of his."

"Ok, well now we have an ID, I'll have to check it out at the lab, but i think that there might be more to this than strangulation. The marks on his neck seem thin to be that of someone who could overpower him, and he's a strong guy. He was probably drugged somehow."

"Alright, well call me if you find anything else. Oh, by the way, where are Ryan and Esposito?" Beckett questioned.

"Over there talking to the librarian who found him. Apparently he gave her quite a fright."

"Ok thanks", she smiled at her friend, then started to walk over to the two detectives. She then realized that her shadow wasn't following her. She turned to find him deeply engrossed in a novel. When she strained her neck to see what it was that was fascinating him so much, a certain name popped up. It was _Heat Wave _by the one and only Richard Castle.

"Castle?" she called. When she got no answer she tried again, this time in a more aggravated tone. He looked up this time.

"What? Oh, sorry! But look what they have! Seriously, someone here has a good taste in books."

At this she just sighed and raised an eyebrow.

"You coming Castle?"

Back at the 12th Precinct, Detective Ryan had begun to look at the security tapes.

"Anything yet?" Beckett asked him.

"Nope, nothing so far. Someone shut off the security camera at 9." He trailed off as he narrowed his eyes at the monitor. "Wait, look at this."

"What is it?" Beckett leaned in to take a closer look at the image on the screen.

"There's Eric, and he's talking to another guy. A professor from the looks of it. Eric looks like he's shouting. He shoves the other guy and there! Freeze it. That could be our killer."

"Leo Gordon, NYPD, open up."

"I'll be there in one second, hang on." he called to them. They heard an "oof" and the sound of someone tripping before a heavyset, middle aged man opened the door. "What can I do for you?" he heaved.

" , we have some questions to ask you about the murder of Eric Addison."

"Eric-Eric's dead?" he gasped in astonishment. "How is that possible? I just saw him last night! Oh my god what am I going to do?"

" !" Beckett's sharp tone broke him out of his rambling.

"Yes, right I'm sorry, what did you want to ask me?"

"Well you could start by telling us why you killed him." Castle broke in.

Beckett gave him a glare and he immediately shut his mouth.

"You think I killed him?"

"Well -"

"Call me Leo."

"Leo, you were seen arguing with Eric only 15 minutes before his death. Your fingerprints were found on a letter that was covered in the victims blood. Now you can either tell us what that was about, or we can take a trip down to the precinct, which would you like?"

"No, no, I'll tell you here" He began in a flustered tone. "It was about the letter. He found some letter from the famous Yankees player, Zach Connor. Eric and I have known each other since we were practically in diapers, you know? Anyway, he gave me the letter because I'm a history professor and he thought that maybe I'd be able to tell if it was authentic. It turned out it was, and man that letter is worth a fortune! It even has Connor's signature on it." Beckett gave him a look that signalled him to get on with the story and to stop stalling. "Since I helped identify it, I wanted some of the money. He had agreed to give me some if I identified it as real. Then he says to meet him at the library because he has something important to tell me. And what does he say? He's not selling it! The nerve of that guy, after I helped him. So yes, we did fight. I tried to convince him that he should sell the letter, the guy wasn't getting any younger, he was going to have to retire soon anyway. But he refuses, so I leave. I swear, that's all that happened. I got a cab and went home, end of story. You can ask my wife, I called her as soon as I left the library and we talked for 20 minutes."

"Turns out that Leo alibied out. He really was talking to his wife." Beckett announced to her team.

"Seriously bro." Esposito whined. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know. What I do know is that we're now back to square one."

"Maybe not." Ryan interjected. "It turns out that there was another person at the library who was seen right before the cameras are shut off. A girl by the name of Paige Austin. And this girl's got a record. Multiple accounts of theft and even one of assaulting a police officer."

"Ok, great. Let's bring her in."

"It wasn't me! I swear!"

"Paige, you don't even know what we brought you in for."

"I know, but whatever it was I didn't do it."

"Paige do you know a man by the name of Eric Addison?"

"He's that baseball player dude, right? Ya I know him. What's this about anyway?"

"Paige, Eric was found murdered. And we can place you at the scene of the crime right before he was killed."

"Listen, you've got to believe me, you have the wrong chick. I didn't even know the guy. I saw him arguing with that old dude, so I left. I swear, I went to my girlfriend's house and watched a movie. You can ask her yourself. Why would I want to kill him anyway?"

"Turns out that Paige _was_ at her girlfriend's house. And she has no connection to our vic that I can see." Beckett sighed with an exhausted tone.

"We've got to be missing something here. Both people who were there right before the cameras shut off alibied out. So who could it be?"

"I think I've got the answer to that." Esposito answered. "I was doing a little digging into Eric's record, says here he was in a car accident 5 years back. They never figured out quite what happened and whose fault it was, but it says here that both the driver and passenger were killed, an Allison and Mark Chase. Their two kids survived, but the daughter had a bad spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed from the waist down."

"Ok, good, that seems like a strong lead. See if you can track down the kid."

"I can't say I'm sorry that Eric's dead. He's the reason my parents are dead and my sister is paralyzed. The guy has tons of money, he could have atleast given us something, right? But no, he lawyered himself out of it, saying that no one could prove what really happened." Jackson fumed, practically spitting in anger.

"Jackson, I hate to have to ask you this, but where were you the night of the murder?"

"You think I did it? I couldn't do that to my sister. I'm the only thing she has."

"Jackson, answer the question." Beckett pushed intimidatingly.

"I was with my sister, just ask. I have to spend most of time with her, she can't really get around on her own. I had to quit college because of that accident, did you know that?"

"Alright Jackson, thank you for your time. For now you'll have to stay in holding, but if you alibi out, then you're free to go."

Beckett grabbed her phone to call Jackson's sister when something caught her eye.

"This name, does it look familiar to you Castle?"

"Ya, Brooke Chase, isn't that-"

"The name of Paige's girlfriend!" They finished in unison.

"Brooke, Paige, hello, thank you for coming into see us today." Beckett greeted the two woman calmly.

"Of course, it's no trouble at all. I don't see what help I can be in a murder investigation though." Brooke answered. She was a petite young blond, didn't seem like the murderous type, but you never know.

"Well, you see, something has us confused. Your girlfriend" she gestured to Paige "and your brother were both suspects in the murder of Eric Addison." Beckett noticed both Brooke and Paige tensed ever so slightly at this. "They both alibied out, saying they were with you. You're brother, however, doesn't remember Paige being with you at the time of the murder. He said that Paige called and you two got into a heated argument before you hung up."

"You can't prove any of that." Paige stated indignantly.

"Actually Paige, we can. We listened to the phone call between the two of you. You were arguing about a person. A certain person who just happens to be the victim of our murder investigation. Brooke was trying to convince you not to do any harm to him. But you refused, saying that he deserved to pay."

"You don't understand." Paige croaked, as a tear began to run down her cheek. "I've known Brooke since we were 10. She was always such a happy girl, she said, her voice cracking as she looked down lovingly at Brooke. "Then the crash happened and it was like she was a whole other person. He destroyed her life, mine, and Jackson's. Not to mention her parents. And then he didn't even bother to help. I wasn't going to kill him. I drugged him so that he'd stay quiet, maybe I could knock some sense into him. Then I saw him there, and before I knew what I was doing, my hands were around his neck and..." Her voice faltered. "I'm sorry Brooke. I never wanted it to end like this."

"Paige Austin" Beckett announced in a stern but gentle tone. "You are under arrest for the murder of Eric Addison. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law."

"I sort of feel bad for Paige. "

"She did murder a guy Castle, so don't feel too bad."

"I know, but she was just trying to protect the woman she loved. I'd do the same thing."

"You'd murder someone for me? Wow Castle, I'm touched."

"Hey, I swear it sounded better in my head."

At this she just chuckled. "I guess it's kind of sweet if you _really_ think about it."

"Sure it is Detective. Anyway, now that the case is closed, do you want to go get something to eat? I'm starving."

"Sure, Remy's sound good?"

"Definitely. A burger would hit the spot right about now." she responded with a smile.

"Remy's it is then." She smiled at him and they made their way to the elevator, ready for anything that might head their way.


End file.
